“Ideal Diet”: Experts Can’t Agree On The Right Diet Or The Right Meal Frequency To Lose Weight And Maintain Weight Loss

DETERMINATION WILL LEAD TO ROUTINE WHICH WILL LEAD TO STABLE WEIGHT AT “IDEAL SHAPE” LEVELS…SMALL MEALS TRAIN THE BODY TO EXPECT NO MORE, NO LESS…BUT THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT THE ARTICLE BELOW IS THE LACK OF ANY AGREEMENT AMONGST “EXPERTS”…DIET CAN ONLY BE ABOUT THE CALORIE COUNT…OGGIES NEED TO STAY UNDER 2,000 CALORIES PER DAY AND THESE NEED TO BE GOOD CALORIES…THE RIGHT FOODS TO “TEMPER” HUNGER….

“If you eat at regular times, your body learns not to expect food at other times,”

Broad support also exists for the notion that small frequent meals can stifle hunger pangs more effectively than the standard big three. For example, two studies in 1999, one with obese men and one with nonobese men, found that such downsized dining took a large bite out of appetites. In both studies, the men were fed the same amount of food either in one big breakfast or divided into five small ones eaten at hourly intervals. Afterward, for lunch, they could have however much food they wanted. In both cases, the men who ate the big breakfast consumed 27% more calories than the men who ate the five small meals. Surprisingly, this difference was not reflected in hunger ratings.

When men ate the single big breakfast, their blood insulin levels spiked and then fell. Insulin levels rose for frequent eaters too, but not nearly so sharply, and they never dropped as low either.

One purpose insulin serves is to “open” cells and let in blood sugar to provide fuel. This lowers blood sugar levels, and that makes you hungry. But in the brain, insulin actually acts to curb appetite. Ideally, this would make you eat just the right amount, but it’s easy for the balance to get out of kilter — in the direction of eating too much. Many nutrition experts believe that the spiking and falling of insulin levels contribute to things running amok and that a steadier state of insulin levels keeps things in line.

Others believe just the opposite. They argue that frequent smaller meals lead to frequent releases of smaller amounts of insulin, and those in turn lead to frequent releases of leptin, a hormone thought to send messages to the brain that the body is full. This means the leptin is hanging around almost all the time, which might sound like a good thing, but unfortunately, the theory goes, it’s not. The leptin receptors get so used to it that they no longer feel inspired to tell the brain to tell the mouth to stop eating.

That view would seem to support the rather maverick-y position Dr. Eric R. Braverman takes in his book “Younger You: Unlock the Hidden Power of Your Brain to Look and Feel 15 Years Younger.” He says frequent small meals aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and recommends “eating large breakfasts and dinners with little else in between.”

A middle course might be best, says Susan B. Roberts, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University and a leading nutrition researcher. Three meals and up to two snacks a day are a good routine for dieters, she says, and the routine part is actually important. “If you eat at regular times, your body learns not to expect food at other times,” she writes in her book “The Instinct Diet.”